Snow & Ice

she walks down the long trail
the woods, everything covered in a blanket of snow.
it is completely quiet, not even her footsteps make noise as she slowly glides through the soft white fluffy clouds beneath her feet. up ahead she can see light coming through, nearing a clearing. she comes upon a pond swept clean by the wind, frozen to a silver white. there is not a breath of wind. she breathes deep and watches as her breath hangs and then evaporates into  the cold air. there is no one else around. she loves the quiet and solitude. it doesn't even seem that cold to her here, sheltered by the trees. she steps out onto the ice and starts walking very carefully across. under her feet, there are beautiful air bubbles frozen in time. the trees cascade all around the edge of the pond, covered in a heavy blanket. a winter wonderland surrounds her. it is so peaceful. she gains more confidence and walks out further towards the center. she stops when she hears from the other side the moaning of the ice shifting from the undercurrent. it is a ghostly sound. an orchestra of tones so deep, escalating reverberating on top of one another. once it starts, the sound starts to echo off the trees and she can hear the ice cracking. a dissonance of sounds bounce into the atmosphere. she feels that she is in the midst of clashing bands. starting from a place she cannot see,  the ice shifts, cracks begin racing towards her. she slowly glides backwards not taking her eyes off the shearing sounds. she is both frightened and mesmerized. a crack forms just a few feet ahead of where she was standing. she has never seen anything like it. the ice is so thick that the crack does not penetrate the surface of the water, and she freezes in wonderment, noises echoing from the pressure between frozen and moving water. very carefully she moves back to where it is shallow and she can see through the ice. the sandy stony bottom a few feet below her. the water moving slowly beneath the surface in frozen ripples.she feels safer here and enchanted by the eerie symphony, she makes her way back to the snow covered shore line where she is a bystander to the beauty of the moment.